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When should you preheat an air fryer and how does it work?

Luuk21 OCTOBER 2025
French fries fill a black air fryer basket, near a wooden bowl with red ketchup, on a white surface.

Not everyone preheats an air fryer. Most products will cook through even without preheating, and it’s easier to set your hot air fryer just once. Still, it’s wise to preheat your air fryer. In this article, you’ll read why this is the case. We’ll also explain how to preheat an air fryer.

Why it’s wise to preheat your air fryer

A person in a blue shirt uses a laptop next to a black air fryer on a wooden counter in a kitchen.

Although it isn’t necessary to preheat your air fryer, we recommend it in most cases. Firstly, because most cooking times you find in recipes or on packaging are based on a preheated air fryer. The result will be better if you preheat your appliance properly. Secondly, products cook better, more evenly and faster in a preheated air fryer, and your chips, croquettes and chicken schnitzels will be crispier. If you were to place your food directly into the unheated, cold basket of your hot air fryer, it would steam first and become limp rather than crispy. Do not preheat your air fryer for large cuts of meat. In that case, there’s a risk the outside will burn while the inside is still raw.

De verschillen tussen een airfryer en friteuse

Hoe voorverwarm je een airfryer?

Green beans and other vegetables are in the air fryer basket. The white air fryer is on a white surface.

How do you preheat an air fryer? Preheating an air fryer is not difficult. Press the power button and then set the desired temperature. Your air fryer will start heating and will beep once the set temperature is reached. Some air fryers have a special preheating programme. If you select this, your air fryer will heat up to a standard temperature you’ve set. There are also air fryers that don’t need preheating, such as the Philips Airfryer XL and XXL. These devices feature special technology that prevents food from steaming instead of frying.

View our top 10 air fryers

How long should you preheat an air fryer?

Air fryer with cooked nuggets in the basket on a countertop. Tongs are on the side.

Preheating an air fryer takes about 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the brand, type of air fryer and the temperature you’ve set. The hotter the hot air fryer needs to get, the longer it will take to reach the desired temperature. Make sure you clean the air fryer thoroughly after each use. If you don’t, food residues can remain on the heating element. This is not good for the (pre)heating performance of the air fryer. Already dealing with baked-on food residue? Then clean the basket and the inside of the air fryer with our special air fryer cleaner. You’ll find it among our air fryer accessories.

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